Mark’s Garage

11÷21÷15
Saturday Flat Rate: $ 10 (Not $ 8)
Until 2am
Was going to Honolulu Theater for an event. Signs all around Mark’s garage are very misleading. A sign outside said $ 12 flat rate, some said $ 8, I paid $ 10.

I apparently have to give them at least one star even though they deserve none. If you carpool this is NOT the place to park. They will not let you use 2 different cars possibly did to the fact that they don’t have the capabilities of writing 2 different license plates on the hang tag (even if you advise them of this on the application). They will take away your pass and threaten to tow your car should you and your carpool buddy decide to switch off on cars, and hope your car never breaks or goes in the shop cuz your loaner will get towed. This ghetto garage shouldn’t be so picky – no elevator and a stair well that more often than not smells of urine. Don’t Park here!!!

As someone who works in town, I park here just about every weekday that I have to work.
The staff are respectful and polite, and will let you know if there is no parking on the third floor or if they have to double park your car for you.
I did have one issue once when I could not find a stall, and the Prego Manager walked all the way up to the fourth floor to personally guide me to a temporary stall so I would not be late for work.
The funny part of the issue is that it was a fellow customer not Marks Garage staff that wrote a bad note saying «this is not a F**ing parking stall» and placed it on my windshield. Couldn’t help but laugh knowing that the person who wrote the note had no clue an employee told me to park there.
All in All — Hours of Operation are Not the Best but it is a Great Place to Park in the Heart of Downtown Honolulu

Came into town to see Dave Koz and Hawaii Pops at the Hawaii Theater. As usual parking is a challenge in Chinatown. but alas, there are spaces in the open lot at Marks. So we pulled in, and the attendant informed us it would be $ 20 to park when its typically $ 8. Well how nice. As soon as there is an event that offers a higher demand for parking, the rates get jacked up. Municipal parking just up the street is the ticket.

No elevators and the stairwell that you are forced to use is filthy. A wad of blowing black hair scared the crap out of me one morning — thought it was a rat! The lot is in ill repair and lighting is not very good.
I park monthly, and its ok, as there are very few options for monthly parking these days. Pet peeve #1 — there is little enforcement. The 2^nd level is supposed to be monthly parkers only. I see cars in front of me paying the early bird deal and they drive up to the 2^nd floor and park. There is a valet attendant on site, and really, they should monitor and make sure that people are parking where they should. Paying over $ 200 a month should get me some perks, one of which is parking on the 2^nd level instead of on the roof because the pay as you go folks are taking it all up.
This brings me to peeve #2: over filling the garage. Ok, there should be a time when they say «sorry, lot is full». They don’t. Recently (and I’m not sure why just this month) I have come out on more than one occasion to find my car surrounded, completely parked in. I’ve had to search for the attendant who had to then find the keys to the 3 cars that are blocking me in and move them. I was late to an appointment because of that, thank you very much.. .. . so stop over parking your garage!!!
If there were any other options for monthly parking, believe me, I’d switch. But there’s not (a big thank you to Wal-​Mart for completely screwing up the monthly parking scene downtown by getting rid of the monthly parking allotment at their garage. I have checked and its always half empty there because most of their customers take the bus!)

Although Marks garage parking prices have gone up recently, it is still the most convenient and largest parking lot available in the downtown area. A must if you’re visiting Hawaii Theatre Center. Lots of restaurants around to enjoy as well. Just make sure you know when they close so you don’t get locked in and I have to go back in the morning to pick up your car. They also charge you extra if that happens. But the staff respects you and your car and I am never hesitant to leave my keys with them when I have to park or double park in the downstairs handicap stalls. Highly recommend this safe storage for my car when visiting downtown.

Kill me please? Its a labyrinth of parked cars, no elevator, and they might as well charge me extra for breathing in their structure.

Kinda ghetto, but it is Downtown after all.

Somewhat cramped parking garage with a great location between Bethel and Nuuanu. The early bird parking is a good deal at $ 12 but choose your space carefully. They tend to oversell so there are cars parked in weird spaces. No overnight or Sunday parking in the garage — use the lot entrance on Beretania and Nuuanu.

Look at your empty lot you greedy mother fvckers!!!
Increasing from $ 10 to $ 15 in about six months… No wonder you lost a ton of customers, including me now. Adding to it that today i saw someone’s posted flyer about getting their car towed because they placed the parking receipt the wrong way on their dash… I’m big on word of mouth, and the all of my friends and colleagues will not be getting your recommendation.

What a dump!

If you are visiting some of the bars or night clubs in the area, you should not park here. They close really early.

DUDE, Where’s My Car???
Yes, sadly, the car was almost lost, well more like unable to be located really, when fellow Unilocaler Rod U and I returned from having lunch in Downtown. After circling around, Rod ultimately decided to park at Mark’s Garage purely out of convenience reasons.
NOTES:
1. Fee was $ 10.
2. Attendant informed us to proceed to the 3^rd floor where the valet would park the car. Double parking was being implemented due to the high volume of cars.
We made it to the 3^rd floor where we saw cars parked in every nook where space was available. The friendly attendant greeted us and directed Rod to park the car in a specific area as to make room for other vehicles. Rod gave the keys to another attendant, provided his mobile number, and let her know we would be back within 1 hour.
Roughly 1 hour later, we come back to to the garage and hand over the valet ticket. The attendant (the one who originally greeted us) searched and searched the box for the keys but couldn’t find them at all. He then asked Rod to look thru the box to see if he could recognize his keys and also for his license plate number. At one point, he made some joke about the other attendant using Rod’s car to «go and pick up lunch», which was funny but not really.
In the mean time, I took the initiative to walk around to see if I could find the car at all. I did end up finding it parked against a wall with the keys on the windshield. THANK GOODNESS we found the car, but this entire experience is such a turn off altogether from ever considering parking here in the near future.
BOTTOM LINE: DUDE, I found my car but I’m never parking at Mark’s Garage ever again.

(Beware of the open lot next to Mark’s Garage on Beretania and Nuuanu)
I would give a NEGATIVE, but since I need to give a star — consider the one star a NEGATIVE star.
First off, please watch out for the ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ mistake. Sometimes the display is blank, sometimes it shows 2 options (one of which is way more expensive).
For example (ON SUNDAY):
$ 5 for ten hours
$ 4 for one hour
NO CHANGE GIVEN!
Press the wrong one and you have no recourse.
Here’s what’s working against you:
1: It’s dark, dimly lit at night.
2: Bad/​Low cost LCD panel
3: 4 buttons, but maybe only 2 choices. ONE IS $
4: Eager tow away companies.
5: NO RECOURSE
— current lot management and new regional manager responded positively and are planning on changes to way the lot works and hopefully the towing policy as well
NOT TRUE — STILL THE SAME.
LOOK AT YOUR RECEIPT, PLACE IT UP ON THE DASH — but more importantly
IF YOU CAN AVOID PROPARK, DO IT!

For me, Mark’s Garage is like a last resort for parking just in case everything else is packed during the madness of Chinatown/​Downtown parking and there is no cheaper parking garages or street parking available. The prices are pretty pricey. Before it was 5 bucks to 8 to a whopping 15 bills. During the daytime there is a special rate for 10 bucks for earlybirds on the outside lot. I think it’s about 8 or 5 bucks for afterhours. The parking area and space over there is pretty tight, especially if you are driving a big SUV or truck. There was this one time where I saw this one huge truck pull an «Austin Powers» for the longest time, backing up and pulling forward. The inside Garage lot has a few floors which is alright. The stalls have a bit more space than the outside. This is actually a popular place to park since it is close to major areas like HPU downtown campus, The Arts at Mark’s Garage, and Hawaii Theatre so it makes it a really convenient location to get to major and key spots. If you work around the area and don’t have access to parking I would take the earlybird or just take bus if you don’t have anywhere else to go or do afterward.
Unilocal 365 Challenge #316/​365

For the most part, I’m a 5-​star kind of girl because I’m an eternal optimist. The glass is not half empty nor half full. It’s all the way full… half air, half water. If I’ve given you less than 3-​stars in a review, either you’ve done something truly horrific or you just suck. I’m sure most of you will agree that this is a good way to use the star ratings scale? I always have a difficult time dishing out 1 or 2 star reviews in Honolulu because in all honesty, I meet business owners on a daily basis and it can get very, very, very awkward.
I’m no anonymous orange head (yeah that’s right, you know who you are Mr. Question Mark) or photo of my dog Coconut (cute pic by the way). I’m the exact person you see on that profile photo (although people have told me they thought I’d be taller and I really don’t know who to feel about that comment) and you can usually stalk me on any social media vehicle of your choosing. When questioned about a review, I’ll look you straight in the eye and stand up for my review and its merits. In the past, people have messaged me and apologized for a bad customer experience. This always makes me feel really bad and I usually go back to give them a second chance. And in some cases, they’ll INSIST I call them to discuss the matter. Ugh, how I wish I didn’t have to make that phone call at times because I don’t know if they’re going to yell at me or be really nice and apologize. Thankfully no one has ever yelled at me about one of my reviews… yet. I have been yelled at because of other people’s reviews, but I think that’s really more of an inner Zen issue. (My advice: Either take responsibility for it or let it go.) In general, I’m not hiding behind a fake profile and you’re welcome to talk to me as long as you aren’t insane or wanting to hand me a court summons.
So long story longer… a few days ago I wrote a short 1-​star review of Mark’s Garage. Who’s going to care if I 1-​star a parking lot right?! WRONG. Someone out there cares… awwwww damn. The very next day, Daniel, the Operations Manager for Pro Park contacted me and apologized for the situation which pertained to not being able to get change from the parking attendant to pay a parking machine. I explained to him that I rarely write 1-​star reviews but was very turned off by not being able to get change from the attendant on duty. I park my car at their adjoining lot frequently because it’s well lit, not underground and there’s a Pro Park worker who can hear my screaming in the distance. Hopefully they will have the sense to call 9−1−1. What can I say… I’m COMPLETELY PARANOID when it comes to Chinatown! Too many late night marathons of Law & Order: SVU!!!
I stated that if you’re going to have a pay parking machine, it should either give you back change or take credit cards. The parking is on average $ 8 and I usually don’t have exact change. Daniel promised me he was going to work with the manager to make sure they give change if they’ve got it on hand. He even said that although changing the machines was going to be a much longer process, he’d work on that as well. I very much appreciated him taking the time to contact me and for that I’m upgrading my review to 3-​stars. We’ll see what happens next time I park there and maybe that 4^th star will make its way up to join its brothers. Next time you write a 1-​star review, just think of me and my quest to make change with change…
Unilocal 365 Challenge: #252/​365 (The Change For Change)

If you work in downtown and you don’t have monthly parking or you need to park for more than 5 hours, you might want to consider this lot. They have a $ 10 early bird special. I recommend getting in there by 8AM so you don’t have to double park and give you keys to the parking attendant. The early bird parking is on the top floor and the spaces are small. Please don’t drive your SUV and park on the line. People who do that in the downtown parking lots are so inconsiderate!
You pay when you go in during the morning and you leave the ticket on your dashboard. I don’t think they allow overnight parking.

$ 10 early bird parking special! $ 5 evening parking and special events! Not a bad price.
Monthly parking rates have decreased in 2010 and 2011 due to the bad economy! Good for you if you need a parking pass!
Monthly parking entitles you to park either on level 2 or 3 and in any UNRESERVED parking stall. If you come late in the morning and there is no open stall, you simply park anywhere and hand over your keys to the parking attendant. The parking attendant then moves your car throughout the day, so that other cars can get out of the garage. When you return, you can pick up your keys and your car will be somewhere on the floor… but may be anywhere! I guess it depends on you and how sensitive or attached you are to your car as to whether this parking situation is a bother to you. I was often times in this situation and often times, I never knew which corner my car was…
Early bird parking is parking on the 4^th level (all are unreserved) in the hot sun :(

You know that you are in Downtown Honolulu when the stalls are barely wide enough to fit a Smart car and the smell of urine percolates through the air. Oh wait, you know that you are in the Mark’s Garage, which is also a parking garage in downtown Honolulu, so my weird, twisted, confusing line of thought might hold true for the geographic region as well…
Anywho…
I choose to park at the Mark’s Garage simply because it often is available on busier nights and it is rather affordable. Granted, it will fill up on First Fridays and other big events, but it is conveniently located between walking too far and having to deal with the street traffic when all is said and done. The garage is well lit for the most part and I generally feel safe in it, which at the end of the day the most important part.
The stalls are tiny and the ramps can be a pain to navigate. SO… be sure to keep your eye on your driving and don’t do anything to crazy or stupid.
Prices are decent with $ 5.00 evening rates and daily rates which are rather reasonable to the outside market.
Definitely worth using if you want a reasonably priced parking stall in downtown!

This parking garage was designed by a lunatic. Or possibly a room full of monkeys with a set of drafting tools. In fact, words don’t, or can’t, do justice to the maniacal nature of the layout of this otherwise-​conveniently-​located parking structure.
The entrance is hidden on the back-​side of the building, making it difficult to get in to, which should have been my first clue of things to come. The eminently-​reasonable $ 5 fee could have been another clue. But nothing could really prepare or warn me that I was about to be trapped in a modern-​day automobile maze.
As you wind your way up to the second floor (the first you can park on), you’re presented with a couple of options, neither of which are clearly marked. A not-​so-​quick tour of this floor will bring you to the realization that the majority of parking (if not all of it) on this floor is reserved. There are a myriad of arrows painted on the floor pointing every which way, as if you could just loop your way through the 3 or 4 rows of the lot looking for a spot and then head up to the next level if you don’t find one. But you’ll soon find that each row of parking simply ends at a wall, with no room or space to turn around. If there are no spots, you gotta back out. Try the next row. Wait, dead end again. Try to back out, with low ceilings, odd angles, randomly placed pillars. Crap. That was tough.
If you can find your way up to the second level, you’ll notice that it’s the same as the floor below.
This parking lot has the hands down worst feng shui ever. There’s no flow. I can’t imagine what it would be like to try to find parking here if there was someone behind you, let alone a line of people. I can’t imagine the clusterf*ck that would ensue if even a couple of cars tried to follow you down a row, only to reach a dead end with no room for turn-​around. It would take one hell of a synchronized effort to extricate yourself.
It’s frustrating even writing about it. At least the way out, once you find it, is easy enough. Just keep circling and you’ll find the bottom. And freedom.
But hey, it’s only $ 5 to park, and the guy working at the time I parked was nice. So they have that going for them. I’d never want to try to park here in an Escalade or any sort of large car (not that I’d be driving one of those anyway).